Hellraiser: Scarred
by Aziza.YASMINE
Summary: Ezekiel Silas has been living in Sicily for five years-there isn't much that he hasn't had the opportunity to see. He has seen it all, including the beautiful mysterious woman across the street through his window. He continues to watch, but as he does so, he soon begins to wish that he had never laid eyes on her, and begins a horrific journey.
1. Chapter 1

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey everyone! This is my first story...well, sort of. So, the history behind this: I've been binge watching the Hellraiser series, and I've actually fallen in love with the concept of it. I love the concept of it, and I love all of its bad 80s effects and some of the movies' 80s plot. Anyway, I don't know if this was influenced by my new love for Hellraiser, but I was brushing my teeth this morning and I suddenly thought of this phrase: "I had been staring at that girl through the crack of her patio window for almost a year now", and the rest is here actually. I need your guys' help in saying whether I should or shouldn't make this a thing, ya? PLEASE PLEASE be gentle with me with constructive criticism. It is just a thought so far, but I like it, and hopefully you guys will too! Enjoy hehehe...

I had been staring at that girl through the crack of her patio window for almost a year now. Surprisingly yet, she had never called reinforcements, or the man I assume to be her husband. Sometimes I thought that she liked the way I stared. At first, it had been innocent, merely an accident as I would look to my right from my painting and see her shoulder, and look away in shock. She had looked exquisite, the glow of smooth skin showing with the beam of the usual morning sunlight, arms and back sculptured with the faint definition of muscle. Her hair would fall to her back simply, and the window pane would hide the rest of her body past her lower back. I still remember that one tedious morning, my hands shaking as I tried to overcome the emotions I felt within myself, me scorning myself for acting like the prepubescent boy I had once been a while back. But then, it would be the next morning that my eyes would begin to wander. I made sure to sit exactly were I was the morning before, assigning my palette with the position of being left of me, and my jar of water on the right near my feet. I would pull all of my hair back out of my face and wrap it into one of it's tangled messy buns before beginning to work. Within the next few moments, she would wake up from her rest, and stretch out gracefully before getting up. It had always seemed like from my periphery vision that she would have looked over to see me there, but then again this could have been my wishful thinking. She would run her hands down her body, down her breasts and to her stomach, past her waist and hips and finally end at the furthest she could reach without bending over. She would roll her neck, her wrists and ankles and then with a dainty lift of her effeminate hand, she would reach for one strap and push it from off of her shoulder, and then the next, and let the sunlight catch the beauty of her body. I tried my best to look away, strictly to my palette to the canvas or from the canvas to the water jar without looking up, but I always betrayed myself and stare. And when I would begin to stare, I couldn't stop and find myself distracted completely. She would be there, rubbing herself with what must have been one of the most expensive, luxurious lotions, for it worked like a charm on her and made her simply irresistible. Lost in her world, she would never look down at me, she never had to. As far as I could understand, she was no performer for me, only I gave her my undivided attention, like an audience member, my face frozen in awe in a sea with others. It would be the morning of my trip back to America that she would first notice me. I was with the painting I had finished, the woman being a heavy influence within the prophet girl I had painted, her body swaying under a transparent cloth, her hair and movement frozen mid-air. In a way, the woman reminded me of my masterpiece. I laughed to myself, shaking my head disapprovingly before I continued to work. My canvas dried, it was dry almost an entire week ago, I just needed still some excuse to sit in front of my Sicilian window. I felt less bad and perverted with the canvas in front of me; my excuse was that as an artist, of course, one needs to be able to face and embrace the human anatomy and its nudity. Which, in my case, was both true and false. True, because some of the greatest masterminds carved some of the most beautiful marble bodies in the world. False, because I had taken this rule and made it into my own personal moral loophole.

I was placing the canvas into its special casing, when I had looked up. I had been closer to the window than ever before, my canvas and its case on the couch nearest to the window, besides my usual place in the corner of the room. I had an exceptional view, and she had looked even more angelic the closer I was to her. Something I must have done to make myself feel like an idiot; closed the case on my hand, scratched the side of the painting nearly-it made me scream in frustration and slight pain.

"Fuck!" I grabbed my hand and sucked on its side at the welt beginning to form. I had sighed simply at my own stupidity, but when I had looked up, I had saw her, with her eyes on me, our gazes looked onto each other. She was frozen, her cheeks red perhaps with embarrassment, though she didn't bother to move from the window. She didn't cover her breasts, nor her groin, but just continued to stare back at the man who had carelessly done so before. When I gave her half of a wave and smile, still awkward and embarrassed my own self, she had surprisingly returned the same gesture and smile. I looked down at the painting, no flaws marring it. I closed the case, and grabbed its handle and looked up one more time, to find the woman gone from the window. I left that early morning, returning to my home in Coney, with her still staining my mind not a stitch of her body gone from memory, and I thought about our little encounter, her gentle smile and her playful wave.

When I had returned from Coney, I came back to my studio in Sicily, a bouquet of roses in my hand. The prophet girl I had painted had only lasted in the auction for an hour before one of the corporate executive officers from Boston bought her. It had been one of my biggest successes yet; it had auctioned off for $2,000.00, and not only did he buy it, but he took me out for lunch, and we discussed business. Within six months, I would be returning back to him, with a Caravaggio-styled Grecian creation story panel, in which he would willingly pay me nearly $25,000.00. Life had been good, but almost so good, that it made me forget about her, my angel in the window.

I had woke up simply from my bed, climbing from out of it and letting the cold air hit my body, traveling through my studio apartment to my kitchen and living room space, where I poured myself some congratulations wine, and took some of my homemade drunken noodles from out of the fridge. I sat in my normal place in that window, and I thought to myself until I saw a figure out to my right. When I had looked, she had just been getting into the room from a shower, her hair and body wet wrapped simply in a towel. Before I could pretend to not look, she had made her place in the window, standing there, her hands around her chest in which she had wrapped the towel, and slowly took it off. There, she showed me her breasts, a couple of her delicate fingers circling around her hard nipples, before both of her hands had lifted to me, as if her body was an offering. She smiled, no doubt, at my gaze, my undivided attention, my eyes as I watched her in amazement and wonder, cooed simply under my breath at the sight of her. She rubbed the towel down her stomach and towards her groin, drying herself with the same slow pace before turning around doing the same with her elegant, muscular back. She looked back at me, as to check if I were still looking, then bent over in her place, grabbing her thighs and letting her torso move closer to her shin before she slipped on what looked like a lace thong through the window, and then a matching scarlet bra. She had left once again, no longer returning to the window. She gave me that smile once more, however, no longer gentle but with seduction, with the admiration of an audience. She loved the way I stared. The twist of her mouth had formed in a knowingly smile, one of those smiles in which she knew exactly what this was. A gentlemen and a woman, from two separate worlds, coming together and combining their worlds into one, just for a few minutes, with something that didn't pertain to society, something that didn't have to please society at all. In society's view, she would have been something irrational; a whore, giving her body to a complete stranger. You see the double standard there? I wouldn't have been shamed for watching as much as she for showing her own temple-but I digress, the angel in the window. It was something tasteful, something new and something without strings, and I had loved every bit of it. I could only hope that she had loved it as much as I did, and pray that never would she be shamed for wanting to portray her body to anyone.


	2. Chapter 2

But was this right? Something about it all had seemed so unrealistic, and a part of me couldn't get over that first night. Couldn't get over the man I sometimes saw with her in the apartment. Couldn't get over the smile and the movement of her body. She had been perfect, perhaps too perfect, or the perhaps the eeriness came from the simple fact that perhaps, her being untouchable was the imperfection within the paradise of my world. I had no clue, but I didn't want any of this to end. Perhaps this man wasn't her husband, but a friend? Perhaps a neighbor, perhaps just a friend. Perhaps he was truly her husband and I was just the doofus peeping Tom looking at a married woman through her apartment window in Uptown Sicily. Perhaps. Maybe I should ask her one day, maybe I would if it were certain that I would get that chance. The next day, I had missed my angel. In worries of discouraging her and/or making her think the worst, if she had even been thinking of me at all, I placed my bouquet on the nightstand within the living room, the roses peaking out into the window. If my plan had worked, she would see them as an apology for my absence, but a thankful gesture for what she had given me last night. This morning, I had went out into the city, down towards one of the cafes I used to stop at when I first arrived as a college student studying Art History. I sat in my same seat exactly if I recalled, my view now out on the city, at the everyday people who had lives to live. It's funny how time never stops. Funny how no matter how much time has been wasted, we are the ones who can decide whether it's been wasted or not. But no matter, time never stops. Some of us never have time, some of us will run out or some of us have all of the time in the world, and we are entitled to every bit of time we, ourselves, have. Now myself, I consider myself to have too much. Time I spend staring out of my window at a woman across the street. But if she doesn't mind it, then who will. I had ordered the same thing I ordered when I first came into the shop, maybe for some sense of tradition. But there I was, with my coffee and with my small plate of food, staring outside of the window. I took out my pen and notepad and began to think out the panel. The Grecian creation story on one panel. The man had told me that what I was to design was going to be in the bank lobby downtown in Boston. The start of whatever I did was going to hang above the entrance, then was going to stretch around the walls of the bank to the elevators. It sounded heavenly, I wanted it to be heavenly. I wanted to feel heavenly; I wanted people to be intoxicated when they came into the bank, to fall in love with my artwork, with me. An effeminate voice woke me from my dream.

"What are you writing?"

I dropped my pen as I jumped in shock, hitting and spilling a bit of my coffee as I did so. I looked back behind me to see her, to hear her chuckle and to see her flawless face. I had laughed nervously, one wet hand running through my hair before I turned to the mess and began to clean it up with nervous energy all over me.

"I'm sorry..."

"No, no. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so strong."

"Did I get any on you?"

"No, you're fine. You're fine."

"Here, maybe you'd want to sit down? Well, after I clean this up-God I'm sorry, I'm usually not so nervous."

"Don't apologize. It wasn't your fault."

One of the staff handed me a towel simply, and within minutes I had cleaned my hands and the table spotlessly. I flexed my hands, feeling the hints of the dried sugar on my hands. She reached into her bag simply, handing me her small bottle of hand sanitizer.

"Here, maybe this would help?"

"Ah yes-thank you. I appreciate it, really."

As I rubbed my hands together, I collected my thoughts looking into her smile and smiling back at her, the two of us laughing shortly and looking into each others eyes. I sighed simply; she had truly been an angel, more beautiful the closer you were to her, with upturned double-hooded eyes that took your breath away with each blink. Her Sicilian accent was heavy, but I understood every articulate honeyed word she spoke.

"Let's try again, shall we?"

"Yes, I like that." She giggled. I cleared my throat and collected all of my hair into my hand. She pointed down to the half-stained notebook and smiled simply.

"What are you writing?"

"Well see-it's a long story."

"What? Your writing?"

" Yes and no. Well, I'm not actually writing a long story-"

"-I figured.-"

"-What I am writing has a long story." I sighed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I don't usually ramble either."

"You're apologizing again."

"Sorry. I mean not sorry. I mean..."

"Okay."

"Okay. Yes. Thank you. Okay." She had smiled at me once more, leaning on her fist.

"It's cute. This rambling."

"I think it's pathetic."

"No...so this, writing. What is it's story?"

"Well, I am an artist you see-I am a freelance artist, usually traveling to Boston in America to sell my art. I mostly do historical pieces, I studied art history in college, and I recently graduated. I've been here for five years now, and I just got a deal in Boston to paint the Grecian creation story. They're going to take what I make and add it to the walls of their bank."

"Wow..that was a long story."

She laughed through her nose. Speechless, I took a sip of my coffee and swallowed simply. I bit my lip before I placed the coffee down.

"That is good though, that is good. I was wondering where you went the other day."

Shivers ran down my spine, my eyes wide. I looked away from her and down at the ground, slightly embarrassed and ashamed even more. I swallowed spit, my angel now folding her arms over her chest and letting out a chuckle.

"I'm sorry. I should have been oblivious a couple more minutes, right?"

"No, no not at all. I just...forgive me."

"For what?"

"Well for being a complete fucking creep for one. I..."

"I'm the one that put the show on for you. Did you not like it?"

"No! I mean hell yes! Yes I loved it, I just...that's usually not the way to catch someone's attention."

"You caught my attention just fine."

"I just mean it was disrespectful is all."

She shrugged, looking out of the window and sighing. Her voice had a smooth suaveness to it, a hint of seduction within the melodious, honeyed words.

"Then I guess you are forgiven. I enjoy an audience, I like it when people watch me. I love it when you watch me. You make me feel like I am special, lovable."

"That man you live with. Is that your husband?"

"Oh, him? No. He is not my husband. He is merely my helper around the house. You know sometimes I get so alone. He helps me fix different things around my shitty apartment, visits me when I'm alone, makes me laugh when I'm sad, you know?"

"Are you sad often?"

"Not recently. Not last night. How about you come over sometime? Instead of just watching from that foggy window?"

"Tonight?"

"Whenever. Just come. Visit. I promise I don't bite."

"I don't either."

"Well that's a shame, isn't it? You could learn."

"I could learn. Once I start I might not be able to stop."

"That's a good thing, is it not?"

We laughed once more, her knuckle covering her plum mouth from me. There was just one last question to ask.

"What is your name?"

She scoffed through her nose, her eyes scrolling up and down at me before she rolled them and smiled simply.

"You should find out."

She stood up from the table simply, wrapping her jacket around her shoulders and beginning to leave. She looked back and smiled. "I like you. You're one of a kind. What is your name?"

"Now that's not fair, you didn't answer my question. Why should I give you an answer?"

"Fair point. Alright, we will exchange last names, yeah?"

"Yeah."

She came closer to me, her mouth out beside her hand as if to whisper a secret. She whispered into my ear. "What is your name?" 

I smiled, sighing through my nose and leaning into her ear. "Silas."

"Silas..." She breathed. "I like that."

"And you? Your last name?"

She laughed, whispering into my ear once again. "I don't have one..."

When I had scoffed, she stood up and smirked, waving her small hand and pressing her fingers to her lips.

"Goodbye ...Silas..."

"Goodbye, stranger."

She laughed as she walked out of the cafe, leaving me to sit in wonder and fall in love with her.

This mystery woman made me cringe and shiver with anticipation, she was playing games with me, and I loved that. I loved games, the he-said-she-said of it all. I loved her playful attitude, her bouncy tone. I finished my coffee, writing down the panel. The panel would have a periwinkle background, and for the Caravaggio touch I would paint in egg tempura paint. When I was finished, I collected my things and left, she again on my mind.

She stained my mind like the paint which had stained my fingers. I wanted her; I wanted to watch her time and time again. I wanted her all over me. I wanted her bent over my table, I wanted to paint her, I wanted to paint us together. What a beautiful picture that would be. I continued on with the rest of my day traveling through the different streets of Sicily. I had first went to art store down the road, and bought some paint and canvases to start my project, and then I had went to the museum and art gallery downtown. I had finished out my day outside with a beautiful lunch; strawberry and cream cheese sandwich with balsamic vinegar with some wine. By the time I had returned home, it had already been dark, and the late autumn breeze would freeze my apartment. I entered in, taking my jacket off and feeling the cold within my living room. I sighed deeply at the dumpy space; there had been something missing from the love seat, the couch, the nightstand and small coffee table. Perhaps it was the clementine orange that I must have been possessed in order to buy. Perhaps it was the mixture of orange and white. No, she lingered; maybe it was my angel missing. Maybe the clementine orange love seat would look better if she had been laying naked on it. Maybe it would have looked better if we were on it, me inside of her holding her waist. Her hands on the cushion and through her hair. My mouth over that beautiful, glowing skin. I could hear her moans now, echoing through my mind, driving me to insanity. I moved simply to the bouquet, moving it back to its regular place. I looked out of the window. She wasn't there, but I knew soon enough that she would be, and then I would be waiting for my little performer. I let my hair down from its bun, letting my curls fall down to my shoulders. I took my shirt, peeling it from off of my body and slinging it over my shoulder. I began to finger at my belt buckle, letting it slide from off of my waist. I took off my jeans, stepping out of them and picking them up simply from the ground. I walked into my bedroom, throwing my clothes simply into the hamper and climbing into my bed. I laid there, letting my mind wander as I thought about her more. I shut out the world around me, and let my exhaustion take over.


	3. Chapter 3

"Zeke..." She had called from out of the room, making me sit up simply from my rest. I rubbed my eyes, laying my hands out beside me as I sat back. The room had been pitch black, cold with no light peaking inside of the apartment. Her hand had wrapped around the edge of my bedroom door, her head peaking into the room. Her face was a mystery, for I could only see her the outline of her head, her hair down to her ribs. A hand reached out for me in the darkness, a long finger curling towards her as she called my name. "Zeke...follow me, Zeke...please."

I began to climb from out of my bed simply, my heart palpitating slightly, my legs heavier than usual as if my body were fighting against me. Eventually, I had stood up onto my feet, looking in the darkness to see her head slip from out of the crease of the door and her body run down the hall, hearing the echo of her chuckle afterward. The hallway had been longer than usual; stretched far out towards the living room. Something within myself told me not to go, but my feet continued to move closer towards the space, a slight green glow within it. As I walked through, along the walls were painted chains, wrapping into the flesh of different victims, their horrified screams painted in fine detail, perfectly imitating Caravaggio's style. All of the victims were naked, some without their limbs, painted egg tempura blood splattered across wall, and running down in a beautiful, realistically shadowed crimson. It was all disturbing; off putting, and I was torn between fear and awe, my hands running across the walls, fingertips trembling, dry mouth frozen.

"This way...in here..." Her accent lingered into the ear.

"What is this..?"

"Come find out...please Zeke, come find out..."

I grabbed the edge of the doorway simply, looking into the space. There was nothing within the room; vacant and cold except for my angel in the center, a single box near her legs as she sat. I didn't see her face, only her long curly mane. She sat up straight, her legs crossed, her arms simply within her lap. I took small, steady steps toward her. Her head was tilted towards it, frozen at the wooden, golden-laced box. I looked at it simply from over her shoulder, staring at what looked like golden buttons. The intricacy of the box was sublime, and my fingers burned to touch it, though I held my hands within my pants.

"You want to touch it, don't you?"

"What is it?"

"Open it. Find out."

My body didn't move a single inch, and I continued to stay there completely still, beginning to hear her call.

"What's the matter? Are you scared?"

"I need to know what it is."

"Why does that matter, Zeke? Baby-open it."

I wasn't going to touch the box, I was adamant on that. I began to back away from her and her box, her body beginning to cringe. I began to watch her growl and groan to herself, curling into a ball onto the floor and heaving.

"Open it." She continuously growled, her voice distorting deeper and deeper until she sounded like the devil herself. I stared at her in the doorway, jumping at the sight of her suddenly popping up from her side, her head turning towards me. She was animalistic, her body crawling in a complete circle without her neck or head changing directions, still staring at me. She hissed, and in a second I had turned around and begin to run down the hall.

"Open the box!" She had shrieked crawling down the hall with a gaining speed. I screamed in horror, turning around and beginning to focus on running to my bedroom, the hall beginning to distort even more as I ran. I could hear something within the walls begin to crack, my body falling down as a chain shot out from the wall and across me into the other. I looked behind me to see her crawling once more, peeled myself from off of the floor and began to run some more. More and more chains began to whip from out of the walls, missing my flesh by only an inch. One of them flew past my arm, its metal hook scratching my skin as it ran through the air, my own blood splattering against the wall as I screamed and held it. I was getting closer to the bedroom door, reaching out for the door. My legs gained speed within them, and sweat began to run down my body. A chain shot across my ankle, tripping me up and leaving me to fall a few feet from the door. I shot up immediately, beginning to crawl my way to the door until I felt two hooks break into the skin of my calves. I screamed in agony, blood beginning to make me slid underneath me, my body now burning. I attempted to crawl still, another hook digging into my side, and another into my right upper arm. My hand had been only an inch away from the door knob before a hook had flew threw my throat, my body stopping. I froze, feeling my blood run down my neck and soaking my stomach. I held out my hand to the door, watching the black figure behind it close the door, laughing with a terrifying baritone chuckle. I screamed and screamed, but as he closed the door, more hooks flew to my body, the edges of my face, stretching my skin and leaving a burning sensation all over my body.

I broke out of my dream with sweat beaded on my forehead, my skin and sheets damp, my hands trembling. I struggled to calm myself, hyperventilating before jumping out of my bed and running towards my bathroom. As I felt my vomit coming up my throat, I helplessly opened the toilet seat lid, and let the tears run down from out of my eyes and the burning acidic bile fly into the toilet. I fell to my knees at the pressure and speed of my vomit, holding my stomach in pain. I finished, falling down onto my bottom, my back hitting the wall simply, my head spinning. I let the seat fall down, flushing it with the last of my energy and laying their simply. I took a few breaths, closing my eyes and sliding the back of my hand against my mouth. I wiped my tears simply, pulling myself from off of the ground and talking deep breaths to myself, my hands trembling even still as I thought about my nightmare. She had been terrifying, her mouth stretched wide into a bloody distorted smile, her eyes black, her fingertips and feet stained with blood. Her limbs had been longer than before, her tongue long and hanging from out of her mouth. None of it had made sense, but of course it all had felt so real. The most terrifying was the figure however. It was supposed to be pitch black, but I could see his outline, figure, and face clearly. He was the shade of death, his purple discolored skin stretched and malformed, his entire head covered in metal, slick pins. In a leather robe, several places of his skin showed, but he had no nipples, the skin peeled back and sewn into the seams. His smile was grimacing, knowing and ravenous, like a wolf who sees their prey for the first time before attacking. I rubbed at my skin reminiscing the feeling of the hooks within them. I looked out into the hallway, my heart calming at the sight of my normal apartment. I climbed up from the ground, walking out to the kitchen. I grabbed the vodka from my cabinet, pouring myself a small iced glass of it before sitting down next to the window, laying back within my chair. I closed my eyes once more, feeling the cushion under me, laying my head back and calming down finally. I opened them, taking a small sip before looking out of the window, at hers. There she had been. She had been waiting for me, wrapped in a thin pink robe, her body visible through the transparent satin. We had met each others' eye, and simply she had took the robe from off her shoulders, and let her breasts show out to me again, one in her hand and another hand near her lips, her index and middle finger in her mouth. She sucked on them, pulling them out of her mouth slowly before letting her fingers travel to her groin. She gestured for me to come towards her before walking away from the window.

I felt sick; I felt as if any movement I could topple over, but yet even still she intrigued me, and possessed some power over me to make me still want to come to her. So I got dressed, forcing my shirt and jeans on, slipping into simple shoes and sliding into my jacket simply. I headed out, down from out of my apartment and out into the light drizzle, across the street and towards her lofts. I waited at the door, and within moments she had buzzed me in. I walked through the halls, my stomach still queasy, my body heavy and my heart aching. I hid the trembling of my hands in the pockets of my jacket and kept my eyes in front of me. Within the shadows, I thought I could have seen her demonized form lurking, waiting for me. Every door that closed and opened, seemed to have the pinhead behind it, smiling at me, smirking at my pain. She seemed to have been on the third floor within her apartment, judging from the ankle in which I always watched her. I would try there; maybe ask some of the neighbors. As I came from the elevator, I had looked at the different doors around me. From the direction I looked, her room would have to be one of the doors on the left, maybe the one to the far left of the center. I walked up to one of the doors simply, knocking on it with two stern knocks. I had jumped at the sudden barks of what seemed like a small dog. I rubbed my temples, before waiting for the door to open. I was certain I was going to see the figure once more, but it revealed to a man, middle-aged worn out and drunk. He braced himself against the doorway, a bottle in his hand.

"How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for a girl, brown skin, brown eyes, dark back-lengthed hair?"

"Down the hall. Three doors down." 

He had shut the door abruptly, my head jerking backward before I backed away from the door. I continued on to the door, looking at the golden numbers that read on the black door, '926'. I knocked on this door once more, hearing faint music from within; this seemed like her. The door revealed to her frame, her in her pink robe. She looked down at my body before looking up at me with those dangerous eyes. She breathed simply through her nose, a slight smile on the curve of her lips. She reached out for me, taking my hand within hers and leading me into her home. She had closed the door, pushing me up against it and holding my face, kissing me sweetly. I rested my head back onto the door, biting my lip and looking down at her simply, struggling to fight my sickness.

"Silas...What is the matter? You look sick. Are you alright?"

"I just had a nightmare, it scared me shitless." She laughed shortly, feeling my forehead.

"More importantly, it scared you sick. Come on, let me see if I have something for you."

She had taken my hand once more leading me through the incense fragranced halls, the music running through my mind and the smell running through my nose. We went through the door to the right, and she took me into her bedroom. She laid me out onto her bed, laying pillows under my head and neck simply.

"Here, let me take these off." She whispered, pressing her lips against my forehead, taking off my shoes and placing them besides the bed. She leaned into me and whispered.

"And these..."

Her hands wrapped around my belt, loosening it from around my waist, and sliding down my legs. She felt them simply, biting her lip and smiling weakly. She rubbed at my thighs and sighed.

"You have beautiful legs..." She marveled. She then folded the pants and took them with her as she walked out of the room.

"Wait." I had called her simply.

"Yes?" She had turned around to see me. I swallowed spit before speaking.

"I'm...Ezekiel. All of my friends and family call me Zeke."

She smiled, looking down at my pants. "Nice to meet you, Zeke...I'm Lia."

"Lia..." I mouthed to myself, ecstasy all over me.

She returned into the room, sitting beside me on the bed and running her hand through my hair. She leaned into me, giving me a kiss on the fore head. Her mouth then traveled down the side of my face to my mouth, and there she held me perfectly still with a passionate, long kiss. She breathed simply, massaging my face as she sighed. "You no longer have to watch me."

"Why not?"

"Why watch me when you can have the real thing?"

She then began to kiss me again, climbing on top of me, her nipples hard through her robe. I let my hands wander down her body, rubbing and cupping her bottom within my hand and beginning to kiss her neck, her eyes rolling as a moan escaped her mouth. "Yes Zeke..."

Over her shoulder, I looked up at the ceiling to see her opposite form once again, snarling at me, watching me simply. Her body twitched on the ceiling as she continued to watch me, her distorted face easing with pleasure as I continued to kiss Lia's neck. She had tried to lean in for a kiss, but I had drew back my head in fear as I saw her own face distorted. I blinked, realizing that not only had I stopped myself from kissing Lia, but that I hadn't been kissing her at all. She wasn't even in the room when I was fully aware of my surroundings. But I was in her bed, without my shoes and pants. I had heard her voice, echoing into the room as I watched her figure come closer to the door. "Now about this nightmare, care to share?"

" Would you laugh at me if I told you I was actually terrified to?"

She looked up at me, then sat on the bed beside me and sighed.

"No. No I wouldn't at all. Sometimes, these things happen. Our minds are our greatest enemies, especially when it comes to dreams. Either you're in paradise until you wake up to your reality, or you're in your hell desperately trying to crawl back to it. "

"I could really try to share if you are really interested?"

She shook her head.

"No, if it is truly terrifying I wish to not know. So."

"So?"

"So we now know each other's names. You Zeke, and I-"

"-Lia."

"Yes."

"You have a gorgeous name. A gorgeous way of spelling it."

She blushed, laying beside me in the bed and wrapping her arms around my torso, her head on my shoulder. She moved my hair from out of her way and kissed my cheek, sighing through her nose deeply.

"Ezekiel..."

"Yes?"

"Are you so sick that you cannot touch me?"

I tilted my head to see her in her face, looking into her eyes and held her cheek simply. Within seconds I leaned into her, kissing her as hard as I could, her mouth lingering on mine, her breath intoxicating. She began to climb on top of me, taking off her robe, her breasts against my chest, her warmth absorbing into my clothes. We began to undo my shirt, and I reach out to her neck and begin to kiss her simply. I pressed myself from out of my shirt, grabbing her and pressing her to my body, feeling her nipples against my skin. I kissed her neck one more time, making a trail from her neck down to her chest, her head leaning back, my hands behind her and holding her close to me, my mouth suckling her nipples. I focused on one and played with the other, switching from each one until she had shivered and let out a laugh.

"You tease me!" She said simply, kissing me. She grinded her hips against me, making me stir and my cock begin to swell. She pressed down on my chest, lying me down to the bed and leaning into me, kissing my neck. She traveled further down my body and reached inside of my boxers, grabbing my cock with a tight grip before stroking it well and caressing it. She placed a kiss on my tip, the warmth and moistness making my body tense up. I shuddered as she began to suck my cock perfectly, her lips tight around it. I began to question reality. Has this been it? And if not, what had it been? If it was, where had I been before? What is trying to force itself into my realm? I admired the feeling of her tongue against my tip, but deep inside I was waiting for another illusion, as if one weren't enough. I waited and waited, but it had only seemed that she had been there enjoying herself, wanting me to enjoy myself. You wouldn't believe me if I said that I couldn't focus. That box was still within my head, with its intricate design and mysterious presence. It begged for the presence of my fingers, but I wouldn't give it the satisfaction. There was something bad I sensed from that box, and feelings as bad as this weren't to be ignored. I hadn't realized that Lia had stopped until I had looked down from the ceiling to see her impatient face.

"What? What happened?"

"I've been here waiting for you to come back from Mars..."

I sighed with defeat, a hand over my forehead. I ran my fingers down my face and shivered.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." I apologized, she behind me now with her hands rubbing at my sides and my chest. She kissed my ear and began to whisper sweetly.

"What are you so afraid of?" I heard her sweet tone ask. I shook my head shamefully and shrugged softly, carefully as to not lose her presence around me. I felt her kisses around my neck, her warmth reassuring and calming.

"I'm not sure...Maybe I should have stayed home?"

"Maybe. You make me curious, Ezekiel. The more I see you in this state, the more I want to know about this dream. What is going on with you? What happened?"

For some reason, I found myself not wanting to tell her. I found myself wanting to keep this a secret for as long as I could. She slithered into me, laying her head onto my shoulder.

"Tell me..."

"I ...I had a dream about you."

"About me? What about me?"

"You were some kind of...thing, some demon that was a distorted form of you. You were going to kill me, you were running after me. You wanted me to open some box."

" Some box?"

"A small one; a little bigger than a Rubik's cube, but a box. And it was wooden and gold."

"Do you mean my...my puzzle box?"

"Your what?"

"I'll be right back. Don't move."

I sat there, her warmth fading away, the bed lacking her weight. I listened to the sound of her feet against her carpet while I sat there and listened to the sound of her return. She had wrapped her arms around me once more, the wooden box within her hands in front of me. It was exactly the same model from my dream, the perfect size with the same intricacy within its design. There was the same feeling within my stomach; though ten times stronger now as my eyes laid upon it . I looked back at her to see her smile, to hear her chuckle.

"What is it?"

"It's just as I said. It's a puzzle box. That's all."

"That's all?"

"That's all. Surely you've seen me with it sometimes through your window?"

"No, I've never seen it in my life."

"Well, here..."

She placed it within my hands, and I fought the urge to throw it from out of the window. I stared down at it simply and shivered. She smiled and whispered.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Are you going to try and solve it?"

"I wouldn't even know how to touch it without breaking it."

"Trust me, you won't break it.."

"Well, could I see you start it at least? To try and get a feel for it?"

"Trust me, you won't need me. Ezekiel, just think of it as this: You don't need to solve the puzzle, once you lay your hands on it, the puzzle starts to solve itself for you. That's how easy it is. You won't hurt it."

"That's the least of my worries."

" You don't need me, you don't need any hints. Nothing. There are no monsters waiting inside, there's no little boobie traps inside waiting to cut your fingers. It's just a harmless puzzle box. Just try it..."

"This is just like my dream."

"If you truly feel that way, then you don't have to. I just want you to see that that dream was nothing but a dream." She leaned into me, her hands once again on my cock.

"And if I was chasing you down, it wouldn't be to kill you. I want you, Zeke."

We laughed quietly, my laugh running through my nose. We exchanged looks once more before before I had looked down at the box and began to move it within my hands. She had been right, it had began to fold within my hands, and within moments, a slit rose from the box.

"Ta da..."

"That's it."

"That's it. Simplicity." She had pulled me back onto the bed, and began to kiss me as she had climbed on top of me, her hands running down my body, our love starting once again, ending with our rest.


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up within my own bed; cold, hot, without her by my side. My body was covered in both shivers and sweat. I had looked around my room once more before I had climbed up, my arms wrapping around me as I began to walk through the apartment quietly. It had still been dark, though there had been no street lights lit outside. Something within myself had been missing, gone though I couldn't describe it. I had been completely healthy, almost anyways. My body had been flawless, and I had been alright since last night with Lia. Lia. The name tasted like sweet pomegranate seeds, and I said it over and over again filling myself up with a loving warmth. I looked back at my bed, looking at the spot beside me which had been wrinkled. She had been beside me. "Lia!" I had called, walking from out of the room and now out past my bathroom and out towards my kitchen and living room, the air frosty. "Lia!"

There had been no response, nothing but the low humming of the rain outside. Everything was cold and quiet. Usually I would like that, but tonight, I had been restless, and so now looking at the supplies which had stayed beside the door since I had returned, I picked them up and began to occupy myself with something to do, the panel which were to make life easier soon. I sat down in my normal place near the window, tying my hair into its old messy bun and beginning to simply look at the panel, imagine the sway of bodies onto the paper. A man to represent Chaos, he would reach out in front of him to catch another man, this one to represent Erebus. Night of course would be there, but he would be holding a young girl in which she would be Love. Light would be holding hands with love, who would be held by mother Gaea. It all had began to fall into place, and I picked up a pencil simply and begin to sketch over it, my pencil hissing as it danced along the canvas. I stopped, Lia haunting my mind. I put the pencil and panel down, and as I looked to the left, my heart stopped completely. There she had been, her body against the window, tears in her eyes as she had sobbed simply. I stood up from my place, watching a black rubber hand wrap around her neck and begin to choke her. "LIA!" I screamed, she being thrown onto her bed and choked some more, this figure over top of her simply. I ran from out of my apartment, my bare feet feeling the cold and wet as the rain came down.

I ran across the street, running with all of my might. I broke in the door, an alarm beginning to echo through the entire building. I ignored it, stepping over the broken glass, feeling some of the glass cut into my feet anyways. I hissed in pain, running through leaving a trail of blood behind me. I had ran to the elevator, stomping with impatience as I waited. When I had heard another scream, I ran towards the staircase and began to charge up the steps. I had ran all the way to the third floor and though I had no more air within my body I continued to charge towards the door. There, underneath it, was a growing puddle of blood, her screams and whimpers behind the door. "No! No please! No! Don't!"

"I'm coming Lia! I'm coming!" I growled, I stepped into the ground, using all of the strength within my leg to kick against the door. I staggered back, taking a deep breath before backing up from the door and charging up towards it, my shoulder slightly breaking into the door. I continued to break into the door, losing the feeling within my shoulder. With one last shove into the door, I flew into the apartment, silence all around me as I climbed onto my feet. I looked around me, nothing but the dark. The apartment had been vacant, no hint of life within it. "Lia! Lia!" I had called hysterically, running throughout her apartment simply before I heard a step behind me. I had turned around to see them, fully dressed within their uniforms, bats and guns ready to shoot at me. The police stared coldly into my eyes, a slight ringing through my ears as I stared at them.

"Freeze." They had sneered, their flashlights blinding me. I held my arm out to them, the other shielding my eyes.

"What? No-you, you don't understand. There was an attack. My friend Lia...she..."

"You have the right to remain silent-"

"-What? No. She's still needs help. He must have taken her-"

"-Anything you say or do can and will be held against you-"

"-Didn't you just fucking hear me?! Some asshole has my friend! We got to find her!"

"-I said don't move!"

"-Are you deaf!?"

I began to try and move against them, however their voices had raised and within seconds I could feel the sting of a million volts run through my body. I fell to the floor, falling unconscious within my seizure. I felt a stroke against my face. When I had opened my eyes, there still had been blackness. I felt my face, feeling the satin blindfold over my eyes before I tried to lift it, a hand smacking away mines. Another ran over my body, massaging my nipple, and another one began to travel within my pants. I tried to call out, another flying over my mouth pinning me down to the bed, and one last one grabbing my hair. My body began to sweat with the heat of their hands, their temperatures past warmth, but close to burning to the touch. Frozen on the bed, I began to moan and accept the hands that had been rubbing me. Around me I heard hisses, and though they were next to me, my own moans drowned them out. The hand within my pants stroked me well with a tight grip. With these strokes, my mouth flew open with arousal, tongues licking around and inside my mouth, giving me sloppy kisses. I tried to sit up, a hand pushing me down again, a strong hiss within my ear. Hand ran up and down my body, beginning to pull on my clothes with desperation, whispers all around me. Suddenly, I began to feel a hand dig into my chest, their nails cutting my skin deep and beginning to scoop under it, blood running down my sides as they began to massage under the skin. It rubbed against the flesh of my chest and stomach. There had been no pain, only the pleasure within their tranquilizing touch. The other one continued to stroke me simply and as I began to lose myself I felt a warm hand take the blindfold off of me. I looked around me, now in Lia's bed, looking beside me to see two demons, their skin pulled back over their face, only their chattering bare teeth shown. They continued to hiss at me, moving their hands all along my body, the bed now a mess, red and heavy with blood sinking into the sheets. Blood was everywhere, on them, on me, my hands, my body, the sheets and covers, with puddles dripping into the pale carpet covering the floor. At the head of the bed, Lia watched me, a grim smile on her face, her eyebrows raised in satisfaction.

I had tried to scream, one of the hands placing over my mouth, my eyes watering as the fragrance of blood ran potent through my nose. I tasted it, a part of me liking the way it taste in my mouth. I began to claw out of the bed, their hands fighting to hold my body back. I reached out to her, their hands grabbing my arm and my face, nails digging deep into my skin. They grabbed at my hair and body, clawing their way into it as I continued to grab for Lia. "Lia! Help me! Please!"

She remained their, her arms crossed over her chest simply. I wrestled from out of their arms rolling out of the bed and beginning to run from out of her apartment. I stopped at the door, beginning to cower backwards as the pinhead waited for me there, his black eyes watching me judgingly as I screamed and crawled. I had fallen flat onto my back my hands out in front of me as I trued to hide my face from him. He raised his boot simply before stomping down onto my face.

I woke up once again in another bed; this time the daylight piercing my face simply. I hugged my whole body, looking down to see orange pants over my boxers. They had given me clothes, shoes beside the small cot within the cell. There had been no cuts, no imitations of any nails, or cuts of any kind. I looked at my arms and hands before the figure blocked the sun. I looked up to see a cop, uneasiness in her eyes as she stared at me and shook her head. "You're free to go."

Before she left, I called out to her. "Wait-what happened?"

"Your friend really is missing. There are some boots and socks beside your bed. Get up and get out."

I obediently did so, walking from out of the cell and following her out towards the lobby. She turned around to me before letting me to truly leave, her. Her eyes on me as she ran her tongue over her teeth then opened her mouth to speak.

"You've been fined $1000 for public indecency and damage of business property."

"Great."

The sarcasm had set her off. She glared at me, breath running through her nostrils sharply with her eyes narrowed at me, her finger in my face as if she were threatening a child.

" I just want you to know that I'm one of the people that will be working on this case personally. I don't know exactly what happened to that girl, but you're a suspect now. So tread lightly, and know that whatever we find at the crime scene, if any of it leads back to you, then I'm coming and dragging you down here myself. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly. May I go now?" I gestured toward the door in which she stepped aside, picking up the sagging pants before heading out of the police station. I sighed deeply through my nose, rummaging through my pockets for whatever change I could find to make up bus fare. The air was cold and crisp, and without a jacket I let goose bumps form onto my skin. Eventually the bus did come, and eventually I was at home once again. I went into the living room and sat there, letting the night sync and muster within my head. I ran my hands through my hair and laid back completely onto my bed. She had been missing. But who had taken her? Why? I could only pray that she was safe, alive at the very least. I laid back, my eyes closing simply as I thought. Suddenly, I began to feel hands massaging my shoulder, a low whisper in my ear as I moaned simply at the sensation of the hands running through my shoulders. "I've missed you, Zeke..." She whispered simply.

I opened my eyes to see her, sitting up simply as I had looked at her. My words were frozen within my throat, my hands trembling and all of the warmth and color running from out of my face. I had seen a ghost, and as I stared at her she simply stared back at me with an eased look and weak, gentle smile. I sighed sharply, looking up and down at her simply.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Ezekiel-"

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Ezekiel, you're scaring me."

"Oh yeah? Well you scared me. You scared me last night and you scared me today. Where the hell have you been?"

"Does it matter?"

"Does it-fuck yes it matters! There are policemen at their stations right now, trying to find you. I...I...well, I guess we can go tell them that we've found you..."

"Wait!" She whimpered, jumping into my lap and wrapping her arms around me, sighing deeply into my neck. She whispered gently and ran her fingers through my hair, pulling simply at my ends and whimpering.

"Let's not go anywhere, alright? Let's...let's stay here, please?"

"Lia...we can't keep you hidden here. That'll only cause more trouble for us. We gotta at least tell them that you're here. After that, we can go home. We can go back to being this..."

"I don't want to be this..." She whimpered, stroking my face, the breath traveling out of her mouth into mine. "This doesn't have a title. It has no future...I want to be yours. I want to be right here. I don't know why, but I love you."

The words triggered something within her; and in seconds she began to sob into my chest. I held her tightly before picking her up from the ground and beginning to carry her into the bedroom, whispering to her lovingly. "Okay, okay...we don't have to go right now okay? We'll go later, but we're going to go. But not now..."

"I want to go to bed, I want to feel you inside of me..."

"Okay, okay...we're going. We're going..."

I hushed her beckons, carrying her simply to the bed and kicking the door behind me in one subtle kick. I laid her out onto the bed, and from there we began to make our sweet love, my skin against hers, my tongue finding all of the different spots on her body. I entered her with great haste as the time began to pass, and I gave her all of me until our orgasms had been foudroyant, and we were laid out on the bed, hand in hand, hair tangled together.


	5. Chapter 5

The morning had been storybook; I opened my eyes to see her there, resting simply with her eyes closed and her breath calm and easy, her hands folded into each other as she rolled onto her side and towards me. She had been stunning; a being beautifully created, a living and walking testimony of the Lord, Our Savior. I went to touch her, my hands rubbing against fine skin, smooth at the touch and perfect within its color. I sighed deeply, and she snuggled into my hand as a cat would their owner. I didn't own her, but I loved her with the same amount of love if not more. I was in love. How stupid of me to say so, how cliche of me to fall in love in Sicily, how weird it was all to be this way. This lovingly, sweet way, close to paradise and surreal. I whispered simply to her, breathing in her breath as I spoke. "Good morning." 

She woke up to see me, her beautiful eyes fluttering open before breaking into an intense stare. She sat up sharply, her big eyes still with their intensive stare, her mouth beginning to tremble as she struggled to climb out of bed. I sat up with her, beginning to reach out towards her. "Lia-what's wrong-" 

In a fit of rage, predominantly fear, she smacked my hand away from her, backing away and beginning to sob.

"Don't touch me!"

"Lia please! I don't understand what's going on!"  
"Get away from me! Don't touch me!"

"Lia-wait, stop!"

She had slid from off of the bed and down towards the floor, scooting behind her with her hands out to me, covering her face as her sobs only grew louder and more hysterical.

"Lia!"

"Don't you fucking touch me again!"  
"Lia-no, no, no, no!"

I had grabbed her from the floor, hugging her tightly to my chest, our bodies struggling to stay onto our feet as I continued to hold her. She sobbed within my arms, sobbing into my chest, her little hands beating against my chest with vicious rage. Out of impatience I had threw her onto the bed, holding her down to it as I began to scream along with her.

"What the hell is wrong with you!? Lia ,it's me! Are you dreaming!?"

"No! No!"  
"Lia! Please God!"

I felt her knee punch into my crotch, and with my body now stinging, I grabbed myself and fell onto the floor. Watching her little feet bounce onto the floor and out of the room. I climbed up from off of the ground, the room now cold and dark once again. I whimpered at the sight of my nightmare once again, grabbing my hair as I stared at the painted chains on the wall. "No, no, no, no, no, no..."

I tried to feel my way though the pitch black, and fell back down onto the floor as I knocked into the bed. I hissed in pain, holding my shin simply. I held my breath when I heard footsteps enter into the bedroom, looking up at the figure who came through the creaking door. At first, she stuck her head out through the door like she did before, the outline of her curls within the small shadow of light coming from what must have been the other room. She laughed grimly, walking into the door and closing it behind her. "You little bitch..."

"Get back!" I shouted simply. "You're nothing! You're nothing but a dream!"  
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that..." She laughed, launching her foot into my stomach, a low laugh coming from her at the sight of my pain. "Miss me?'

"Lia..."I coughed, trying to peel myself up from the floor. "I don't understand."

"Do you have to? You're not here to understand. Get up."

She pulled me from off of the floor, pushing me onto the bed, ripping my shirt as she did so. I held up my arms to her, squirming away from her as she begin to climb on top of me. "Lia! Stop!"

"What's the matter? You can't handle this?"

"Lia, what the hell is wrong-"  
-Shut up!-" She smacked me simply, my body flying towards the direction of her blow before she pinned me down to the bed and begin to continue this torture. She was vicious, never stopping never wanting to . She left scratches all over my body, bruises around my waistline and face. When my body would threaten to faint, she would cold me by my neck and choke me awake, and when I was fully awake she would hit me once more into cowering into submission. I hated this dream, I hated what she was in my dreams, and I hated how I had no control over any of this within them. I wanted to shut my eyes and make it all go away.

"But we aren't so lucky, are we?" I heard a baritone voice echo within my head. I looked up at her, horror in my eyes as she continued, her mind too focused on my pain to hear his voice, I guess. But he was there, there within my ear and with a full enough volume to make my body shiver harder under her. I began to whimper, hearing his laughter in the background of her grunts and my moans. I began to fight against her, she grabbing my incoming hand and throwing another punch at my law, blood splattering from out of my mouth.

"We all wish that we could just erase our mistakes and pretend that they never existed. But mortal, as always, you and your kind are wrong. When will you learn that your actions hold meaning? Whatever you do in your Earthly realm sticks to you? Even in death."

I could never see her face within the darkness, and something told me that I would have been better with this discretion. She dug her nails into me, breaking skin, blood trickling down my shoulders like raindrops. This voice made me quiver, close my eyes and pray myself from out of my dream.

"You pray mortal, but I hope your God is as merciful as I, for I give you only a quarter of what you deserve..."

With all of my might, I pushed up against her, pushing her body from off of me and climbing from out of the bed and down the hall. I could hear his laughter behind me. I heard scraping behind me, as if someone was carving into wood. I could hear her footsteps behind me, and the thought of her running behind me again alone was enough to not make me want to look. I ran from out of the apartment and out into the darkness, the cold as it hid my freshly cut skin. I looked all around me, heavy rain running down my skin once again, washing the blood off of my body with a cool run of water. I looked around me, now no longer within my apartment. I was no longer within my small apartment, nor in her luxurious incense-fragranced one, but somewhere different all together. This place was dark, mysterious and had so much eeriness attached to its appearance, I questioned if we had still been in my beautiful Sicily.

I soon had answered my question, feeling the slight rock of the old wooden docks as the waves crashed against them, feeling droplets of the ocean's dew onto my toes. It stormed above, the sky full of lighting and the wind muted out by the sound of raucous thunder. I held my body tight, looking behind me to see nothing but the black sea, its water black, some parts of it thick like tar moving about in the water. In front of me was some warehouse, old and wooden. Large, abandoned, and decrepit, I hesitated to enter the building, my heart frozen within my chest. There had been nowhere else to go; there was nothing around me but the stormy night and the black shadows, and a low humming around me only growing stronger. I walked simply towards the door, opening it's broken door simply, and walking inside, praying deep within my heart that I would be free from this madness soon. My steps made echoes behind me; my bodies shivering as I walked through. The warehouse had been empty; vacant and yet even colder than the pouring rain outside. Inside, the air felt sticky, my skin felt doughy with my hair stuck to the side of my face. On the floor was a puddle of blood collecting on the hardwood; with single rhythmic droplets falling into the puddle, its sound low and echoing throughout the place as well.

I tried to look up to see where the blood had been coming from, only the shadows had covered whatever had been hanging. I looked behind me to see Lia there, her mouth in a pout as she looked at me. Well, when I say 'at me' she really looked as if she was looking right _through_ me, as if I hadn't existed at all. But she wouldn't be looking at a normal wall with disgust. Her dark skin was soaked with the rain, her curls falling flat down past her shoulders, her face covered in bruises and scratches. She had a wild type of look within her eyes as if she had seen a ghost, and her full lips fought to stay still as she talked to me, at me rather.

"I had known him for about a year. He was new here, he didn't really know anyone, didn't really talk to anyone from what I could tell."

"Lia?" I had tried to ask her, yet she didn't pay attention, of course. She continued to look at the wall, look past at me. She had given a pause as she spoke, speaking mechanically.

"He didn't really talk to me sometimes. Sometimes he would zone out, other times he would come back to Earth, but by then the topic was back on me again. We always talked about me, never about him. I'm not sure if I even know his name."

I watched her, and as I did so, I began to walk closer to her. I walked until my mouth was near her ear. I watched her, her eyes still on the wall. When I had ran my hand over her face, she hadn't given me her attention. When I had placed my hand on her shoulder, she didn't budge. It was only when I had blew on her ear gently that she had slightly flinched and rubbed her ear. I decided to leave her, but as I began to walk out, he was there waiting for me once more, his black eyes stuck on me as I stayed there, frozen within my tracks. "What do you want from me? Why the hell do you follow me?"

"You are asking all of the wrong questions. Tell me, when you wave your hands in her face, why do you think that she doesn't respond?"

"Because I'm being haunted by you! I'm stuck within my nightmares and I can't wake up from it. Simple as that."

"Nothing never is just...simple as that. Your hubris clouds your judgment."

I didn't dare walk a step closer to him, walking backwards into the wall, my hands beginning to cover my ears as he walked towards me.

"Nothing is ever simple. Everything has a reason, an explanation, a story behind it. Nothing ever happens without a beginning. You of all people should know, that, you yourself are a creator."

"I don't understand..."

"Soon you will. And when you do, I will be waiting for you."

I cowered into the corner, my hands over my ears, my eyes closed shut and my body beginning to shake once more. When I had dared to open my eyes, I had once again been somewhere different, within the bed of my own bedroom. The daylight beamed through the crack of my window, the light shining onto my face. I climbed up, my hands under me and my eyes out towards the window. It had been over, at least for the night. At the sound of footsteps, I flinched, hands shaking and pulse beginning to palpitate with fear. Then, she entered, her smile soft and bright, her eyes big and piercing. I scooted away from her, sweat covering my body.

"Ezekiel... "

"No...don't! Don't-"

She pressed her warmth to me, her arms wrapping around my shoulders, she squeezing my head into her breast, my mind and body calming as I could heat her heartbeat. She sighed through her nose deeply, hugging me with a tight grip, as if she was careful to not let me slip from out of her arms, but soft enough to calm me. Tears began to fall from out of my eyes as she hushed me, my heartbeat beginning to match hers in a slow, tranquilized pace. I felt drugged within her bosom, my head hot with a migraine, my hands shaking as I held onto her as well.

"I don't know what's reality anymore...I don't know whether this is real or this is another dream. I don't know how long I've been dreaming, if I am dreaming at all..."  
"Don't worry about that...don't worry..."

"Are you even speaking to me? Are you even real?"

"Ezekiel-"

She grabbed my face from her chest and stared into my eyes. She pressed me closer to her into a kiss that sent me into complete bliss. She sighed simply through her nose and began to speak.

"I'm as real as rain. I'm as real as you want me to be..."

"But I don't know what that means..."

"You will in time, my love." She returned my head against her chest, and I began to fall asleep within her arms, forcing myself to stay awake.

"No! No-I...I can't go to sleep. Don't make me go to sleep..."

"It's only going to be a little while longer, but you're going to have to rest."

"No...please...I, I can't go to sleep..."

"Close your eyes now..."

"Lia, please, no...wait..." My words began to slur, and I began to slowly drift closer and closer into rest.

※

When I had woken up, whether this be from another dream or some type of hope within my current reality, I opened my eyes to the darkness once more. It had been raining again, the raindrops hitting against the window seal in hard, large drops. I woke up in the driver's seat of my car, looking around simply to find the warehouse in the distance. I climbed out, letting the rain wet my clothes and hair once more as I stepped onto the docks and continued on. The lightning gave me only a few seconds of light, but with them, I began to look through the creases of the wooden boards that made up the warehouse. There was something waiting for me inside, and I stopped in my tracks as I watched a figure within wiggle. But I opened it again, and let the creak k of the rusty hinges give away to my position. There had been nothing inside of course, except for when I began to move closer to it. There had been a slight creak, a whimper, and both had stopped when I looked around the room. "Hello? Who's there?" 

No one had answered my calls; but when I stepped across the floor once more, there was another whimper, this time louder and sharper. It directed my head towards the floor. I jumped when I saw the big bloodshot eye under them, the whimpers starting all over again, this time melting into hysterical sobs.

"Help me!"

The voice was painfully familiar, striking my heart as I began to understand what happened. This..this had been reality.

"Lia?"

"Help me! Please!"

"Lia-are you hurt?"

"My legs are stuck! If I move, I might break them. Please get me out!"

I began to look around the room, her wails becoming stronger.

"Please get me OUT!"

"I will Lia-Lia, Lia, Lia, Lia,Lia-you have to be quiet or he might come back."

"No..." She said in a low whisper, pained and hoarse. "I'm sorry..."

I looked all around, for something-anything that could get her from out of that tiny hole. It drove me insane to watch it, to imagine how putrid it was, how dirty it was, how excruciating it must have been to be in there for hours or even days, how painful to know that at any moment, if you made the wrong movement, you could paralyze yourself. Eventually I find a crowbar, footsteps beginning to echo outside of the doors.

"That's him! He's back!" She squealed. I readied the crowbar and waited for the doors to open. The doors revealed to show him, his bulky stature standing in the rain simply before he began to charge towards me, not noticing the crowbar waiting for him. At the perfect time, I raised it and swung it into his face. He must have scratched me within the right moment as well, my body jerking to my right hard as a scratch appeared on my jaw. It put me into a slight daze, but quickly I rustled onto my feet and looked down at the man, at the gash that had been on his. Underneath the thin layer of "skin", revealed the pair of lips from under it. I pinned his body down with the weight of mines, taking the ends of the shredded skin and pulling it from off of his face, my hands shaking as blood began to pour down from the skin, more skin becoming revealed underneath. What I saw next paralyzed me, made me faint almost, the man beginning to stand up onto his feet. He gave me a grim smile, taking his hair from out of it's messy bun and letting it fall down to his shoulders, glaring at me ravenously. I began to scoot backwards, my heart stopping overall.

I stared at myself, all horror in my eyes as I looked at the animosity in his, the eyes that were mine, but twisted into some horrific reflection. Pinhead then appeared beside him, his hands folded neatly in front of him. I stood up, continuing to stare at my own demon before looking at Pinhead.

"You think this is funny, don't you? You get off at twisting all of my dreams and turning them into your own little monsters..."

"Don't you see it? Doesn't it all add together, mortal? You have a mind. Use it." 

Pinhead began to walk towards me, his pace matching mines as I backed away from him, one foot at a time.

"Do you know what I 'get off' on, mortal? The dirty, hellenistic souls of greed, lust, desire..."

"What-"

"-You first saw her a year ago. And you just fell in love with her. You just had to have her."

"Wait, I-"

"You began to stalk her, time and time again until she couldn't leave your mind at all. You two were star-crossed lovers, so close yet so far away. You knew everything about her. Where she worked, what she wore, what she liked, who was there with her...You only had wished that she love you as much as you loved her."

"Please..."

" You are your own fantasy. You are the clean, tampered with version of, not him. Not this one beside me."

"You're lying."

"But she had a boyfriend. They argued, he made her cry. You hated to see her cry."

From the shadows behind him, a corpse stood there, brutally mutilated without part of his face, nor his fingers and toes. His skin had been marred with scarring, as it to have been burned by acid. I nearly screamed at the sight of him, my hand covering my mouth as I scooted away.

"That isn't true..."

"There was nothing stopping you once he was gone. You would have done just about anything to be with your precious Lia..."

Memories began to come back to me, My wrists being slit from my own eyes, the blood from them beginning to stain my palms and make them stick. I began to feel sick, lightheaded as I watched my demon. I was there, watching her through the window, the first day. She had never known, she had never looked down, she never had the reason to...as far as I knew, she was no performer for me, only I gave her my undivided attention. I saw myself meeting up with her in public, giving her roses. I saw myself sneaking into her apartment during the day to sniff her clothes. I saw myself within her bed, soiling it with my semen, cleaning it in a rush and leaving. I remembered her disturbed face every time I had talked to her. She had tried to be polite, but within her eyes was fear and her mouth twitched.

I began to sob as I saw myself with her, abducting her, molesting her, scaring her...hurting her. My hands covered my face as I sobbed and wept like a child, it all coming back to me, it all being in my memory, my blood and veins. I felt the animal within me, the sound of her name making it growl inside of me.

"Lia..."

"I was giving you her perspective. How she never could tell the difference between reality or surrealism, how she was in constant pain, constant fear."

All I had felt, all of what had been my hallucinations, had been what had happened to her:

She had whimpered within my hands, me holding her there, staring into her eyes.

"Let's not go anywhere, alright? Let's...let's stay here, please?"

"Ezekiel...you can't keep me hidden here. That'll only cause more trouble for you. We...we have to let this go. Let me go back home...we can go back to being this..."

"I don't want to be this..." I whispered, stroking her face, the breath traveling out of her mouth into mine. "This doesn't have a title. It has no future...I want to be yours. I want to be right here. I don't know why, but I love you."

She had sobbed softly, me licking my dry lips.

"I want to go to bed, I want to feel myself inside of you..." I had confessed to her, lifting her up and beginning to carry her into my bedroom. I shivered at the thought, my eyes twitching as my body felt disgusting. I wallowed in my own disgust, reminiscing all those memories, all of them different from what I remembered them. They were like horror movies, except discovering that you had been the source of the pain all the memory came to mind. We were in my apartment; and I...I was a monster. I laughed grimly, walking into the door and closing it behind me, "You little bitch..."

"Get back!" She shouted simply. "You're nothing!"  
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that..." I laughed, launching my foot into her stomach, a low laugh coming from my mouth at the sight of her pain. "Miss me?'

"Zeke..."She coughed, trying to peel myself up from the floor. "I don't understand."

"Do you have to? You're not here to understand. Get up."

I screamed, vomit coming up my throat and splattering onto the floor. I hugged myself, digging my own nails into my skin, rocking as I tried to unsee my memory, unsee what I had done to her. It all had burned, it all had made me want to die. I began to pull at my hair, different locks beginning to fall to the floor as I pulled as hard as I could, my own screams filling the warehouse.

"Oh, please...You will never understand the pain you have afflicted."

He began to circle around me, whimpers flying from out of my mouth as I had let my sins overcome me sync into my head.

"Police would begin to investigate. A young girl missing, her boyfriend missing for longer. They would know about you, and they would start to ask questions. That's why you took her here. It seemed like paradise to you. You with the girl of your dreams. But there was something that you must haven't had paid attention to."

I heard her screams in my head, the whips of chains. Her voice had filled my mind, making my hands shake. "Wait! Not me! Please! I summoned you to talk! "

"Your time has come, Lia. But you have your chance, talk. " His voice had flowed through my mind perfectly.

"Wait-no, please! I can...I can give you something better!" She had whimpered.

"Someone who's just your taste!"

"Who?"

"The man-the man that watches me through my window...I know he stares at me, he can't help to when I get undressed. He's perfect. He's more satisfying than I..."

"His name?"

"I met him...it's...it's...Silas. Ezekiel Silas..."

I came back to; watching myself struggle with Lia. I had my arm wrapped around her neck simply, forcing her backwards. She grabbed my hand, biting it simply, nicking it.

"Fuck!" I grabbed my hand and sucked on its side at the welt beginning to form. I had sighed simply at my own stupidity, but when I had looked up, I had saw her, with her eyes on me, our gazes looked onto each other. She had the box within her hand and within seconds I began to run for her. She chucked the box at me, and simply I caught it, the box assembling. It had opened and within moments, blinding blue light had began to beam through the shattering warehouse. I held my arms up to cower behind them before turning around to see him. I had stared at him, fear overcoming me as he looked at the ceiling, chains being heard faintly. Within the dark of the shadows, I saw the outline of what must have been a body hanging.

"Remember: I asked you why was it that when you waved your hand in her face, she didn't respond?"

The chains began to unravel from the ceiling, the pile of blood now there once more. As the chains unraveled, I watched it come closer and closer to the ground, eyeing the blood that ran down its back and through the hair down to the floor. It fell simply, an inch away from falling to the floor, hair now dipped into the blood. I walked simply towards it, my face freezing as I stared at the corpse's face. The skin had been discolored, skin distorted under the tight chains that wrapped around it. Hooks were sunken deep within it, two large bloodied hooks now where they eyes used to be protruding from out of the skull. Through the mutilations, I could clearly see who it was. I touched my corpse's face, the skin callous and cold. My hand recoiled at the touch, my eyes frozen on it as I turned around to see Lia once again.

"I had known him for about a year. He was new here, he didn't really know anyone, didn't really talk to anyone from what I could tell. He didn't really talk to me sometimes. Sometimes he would zone out, other times he would come back to Earth, but by then the topic was back on me again. We always talked about me, never about him. I'm not sure if I even know his name...Silas. Ezekiel Silas I think."

I began to hear another voice, this one deeper.

"And ma'am, I'm sorry this has happened to you. I just want you to know that there's a very low chance that you'll be charged with anything at all. We don't know what happened, but even if you were to be charged, you would still get off with self-defense. Is there anything I can do for you? Anything at all?"

"No, I have all I need. Thank you."

Pinhead had been joined by others, others like him except for mutilations in different places. But they all watched me like a piece of meat hanging slowly. "Time to go, Silas..."

At once, I felt a hook go through my throat, beginning to pull me back into the blue lights, the demons simply following behind me. I didn't bother to fight nor argue, and I let the hook drag me backwards into hell. I closed my eyes and began to embrace my new home within the gaping mouth of hell.

 ***Disclaimer: I do not own Hellraiser, or any of the Hellraiser characters nor concept. I am just a mere fan.***

 _AU: Thanks you all so much for reading! I appreciate all the time sacrificed for this-thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you all! And if you love me, or if you loved this story, pleaaase share it with your friends! I love requests so send those my way! And I'm working on some webpages to follow if you want to do that soon! This story was written to:_

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 _Check those songs out if you haven't already! And see you guys again soon! Aziza Yasmine, y'all._


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